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Renault's RS18 Might Be Too Hot To Handle

19:31, 13 Mar 2018

byNicolás Quarles van Ufford

Renault's CTO Bob Bell has admitted that the new RS18 might have some cooling problems, after trying to find more aerodynamic perfomance over the off-season with the new design of the 2018-car.

The French team already saw a bump in performance after introducing an update on the aerodynamics package at the British Grand Prix last season. The new rules however, stating that teams can only use three power units instead of four, could pose a problem for the new car. Bell explains the effects it might have on the RS18.

"It can effect some of the thermal conditions we have to meet on integrating the power unit into the chassis, but not to any great extent," the British engineer explained.

"If you look at the car and compare it to last year you'll see we've gone even greater lengths to try to squeeze all the componentry together.

"That makes it even harder to manage the thermal flows of the car.

"So no, we pushed like hell to get the maximum aerodynamic performance from the car and that means squeezing everything closer together and giving ourselves more headache with thermal management."